Bronx District Attorney Says New System Will Reduce Case Delays

When Darcel D. Clark was a judge in the Bronx, she used to see criminal cases in her courtroom delayed for weeks, even months, as they were handed from one prosecutor to another.

At a minimum, every case would pass through the hands of three prosecutors, each of whom oversaw a different step in the legal process, from writing the initial complaint to going to trial. If a prosecutor changed jobs, yet another person would have to scramble to become familiar with the case.

“I saw the way the delays were built in,” Ms. Clark said. “How many times did I hear, ‘Oh judge, I need another two or three weeks.’”

Ms. Clark, now the Bronx district attorney, intends to reduce those delays by adopting a new system of handling all cases starting this month. The system — known as “vertical prosecutions” — will assign every incoming case to a single prosecutor who will be responsible from beginning to end. Ms. Clark said the system would allow prosecutors to get to know their cases better and to take ownership of them. It would also foster closer relationships with victims and their families, she added.

To put the system in place, Ms. Clark’s office will hire an additional 45 assistant district attorneys and two dozen new legal assistants in the next year at a cost of $3.8 million. The money used for the vertical prosecutions is the biggest part of an additional $11.5 million that the Bronx district attorney’s office received in the New York City budget.

Another $1.8 million will be used to pay for a new prosecution bureau at Rikers Island, where assistant district attorneys will be stationed as part of Ms. Clark’s efforts to focus on crimes committed at the city’s main jail complex.

The changes come as the Bronx struggles with the largest backlog of felony cases in the five boroughs. There are 1,476 felony cases that are a year or older in the Bronx, compared with 775 in Manhattan; 682 in Queens; 662 in Brooklyn; and 73 on Staten Island, according to state court data.

Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for the Office of Court Administration, which runs the court system in New York State, said the Bronx district attorney’s move to vertical prosecutions complemented the state court system’s own efforts to address case backlogs in the Bronx and across the city. “Providing litigants with a timely justice process is a collaborative effort,” Mr. Chalfen said.

Robin Steinberg, the executive director of the Bronx Defenders, a nonprofit that represents 28,000 people a year in criminal proceedings, said she saw vertical prosecutions as a positive step.

“Creating a system of individual responsibility will enhance prosecutorial accountability and is a good first step towards ending the systemic delay that denies residents of the Bronx their day in court,” Ms. Steinberg said.

Vertical prosecution models are already used in Manhattan and Queens and on Staten Island. In Brooklyn, they are used to handle certain types of crimes, such as homicides, but not all cases.

Joshua Marquis, a member of the governing executive committee of the National District Attorneys Association, said that more district attorneys around the country were moving to embrace this approach at a time of a growing emphasis on victims’ rights. In addition, he said, many see vertical prosecutions as an efficient management tool because when a prosecutor is heavily invested in a case, it is less likely to get overlooked or lost in a pile of other cases.

“I’m a big supporter of vertical prosecutions,” said Mr. Marquis, who is also the district attorney for Clatsop County, Ore., and uses them in his office.

In the Bronx, this approach had previously been used on a limited basis with cases involving domestic violence and child abuse. But it was put in effect for all cases for the first time on July 5. Under the new system, even seasoned prosecutors will now work alongside junior colleagues to take statements from victims and write out complaints, the first step in prosecuting crimes.

Ms. Clark, a Democrat who took office this year, said she had yet to receive any resistance from assistant district attorneys over the change. On the contrary, she said some had expressed excitement that they would have more control over their cases.

In addition, Ms. Clark said she had been addressing the current backlog of cases by convening weekly meetings with her senior staff members, who account for the status of old cases. In total, 1,361 cases have been reviewed since February, of which 570 have gone to trial, have been dismissed or have resulted in defendants’ accepting a plea deal.

“It’s like CompStat,” Ms. Clark said. “It’s ‘TrialStat,’ and you have to answer.”

Peter Jones, a lawyer who is in charge of the Legal Aid Society’s criminal defense office in the Bronx, said he believed a system of vertical prosecutions would help move cases forward to disposition or trial more quickly. He added that under the new district attorney, the office had already begun prioritizing older cases.

“Having one assistant handle the case beginning to end,” Mr. Jones said, “will encourage an earlier and more substantive case evaluation that hopefully avoids decisions being put off until a case is two to three years old.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A25 of the New York edition with the headline: Bronx Prosecutor Adopts System to Reduce Delays. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe